How Does Ireland Compare with Other Countries

Therefore, the National Banking Act extended in time the prohibition of the early bank char- ters against dealing in merchandise. Throughout American history there were, however, periods of time when banks were permitted to enter commerce. For example, there is evidence that during the second quarter of the nineteenth century—a period that became known as the “free” or “wildcat” bank- ing era—banks in some states, such as Con- necticut, Michigan, New Jersey, South Carolina and Texas, received charters allowing them to combine banking with many other nonbanking activities. There is also evidence of banks mix- ing with commerce after the enactment of the National Banking Act in 1864. When the act was enacted, it was believed that state-chartered banks would convert to national charters. But while a national charter did confer greater pres- tige and competitive advantage in terms of note issuance (state-chartered banks had to pay taxes on the notes they issued), state charters allowed broader powers. California, for exam- ple, allowed its banks to enter commerce.

We provide new evidence about the degree of social segregation in England’s secondary schools, employing a cross-national perspective. Analysis is based on data for 27 rich industrialised countries from the 2000 and 2003 rounds of the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA), using a number of different measures of social background and of segregation, and allowing for sampling variation in the estimates. England is shown to be a middle-ranking country, as is the USA. High segregation countries include Austria, Belgium, Germany and Hungary. Low segregation countries include the four Nordic countries and Scotland. In explaining England’s position, we argue that its segregation is mostly accounted for by unevenness in social background in the state school sector. Focusing on this sector, we show that cross-country differences in segregation are associated with the prevalence of selective choice of pupils by schools. Low-segregation countries such as those in the Nordic area and Scotland have negligible selection in schools. High segregation countries like Austria, Germany and Hungary have separate school tracks for academic and vocational schooling and, in each case, over half of this is accounted for by unevenness in social background between the different tracks rather than by differences within each track.

England’s private schools are, in general, more exclusive than those in other countries. Table 3 contrasts, for a selection of countries, the percentage of 15 year olds with a high social background in private schools, defined on the management basis, with the corresponding percentage in state schools. Two definitions of ‘high’ are used: above the national median and above the national upper quartile. One half of all pupils at private schools in England are in the top quarter of the distribution of social position: the difference of nearly 30 percentage points from the figure for pupils in state schools much larger than the OECD average. In Scotland, the difference is slightly bigger again. Changing the high/low cut-off to the median produces even larger differences between children in private and state schools. (The situation in England and Scotland relative to other countries in part reflects the fact that privately managed English and Scots schools are invariably privately funded as well, whereas this is not the case with many privately managed schools in a number of other countries.)

England’s private schools are, in general, more exclusive than those in other countries. Table 3 contrasts, for a selection of countries, the percentage of 15 year olds with a high social background in private schools, defined on the management basis, with the corresponding percentage in state schools. Two definitions of ‘high’ are used: above the national median and above the national upper quartile. One half of all pupils at private schools in England are in the top quarter of the distribution of social position: the difference of nearly 30 percentage points from the figure for pupils in state schools much larger than the OECD average. In Scotland, the difference is slightly bigger again. Changing the high/low cut-off to the median produces even larger differences between children in private and state schools. (The situation in England and Scotland relative to other countries in part reflects the fact that privately managed English and Scots schools are invariably privately funded as well, whereas this is not the case with many privately managed schools in a number of other countries.)

What sectors contribute to the lower elasticity of external demand of Portugal compared to other euro area countries in this period? The result is mainly driven by two sectors: “Apparel and clothing accessories” and “Machinery and electrical equipment”. Both sectors account for a significant share of total Portuguese exports (13.5 and 18.8 per cent, on average in the period 1955-2009, respectively) and face relatively low demand elasticities of substitu- tion in their main destination markets. In fact, among euro area countries, comparably low elasticities of “Apparel and clothing accessories” are found only in Ireland and Belgium and only Ireland has a lower elasticity of “Machinery and electrical equipment” than Portugal in this period. Thus, these two sectors drive down the price elasticity of demand directed to Portuguese exports and partly compensate the impact of the high elasticity of “Trans- port equipment”, which represents also a large proportion of Portuguese exports. However, even in “Transport equipment”, the demand elasticity in Portuguese export destination mar- kets is, on average, lower than that faced by most euro area exporters. In this period, not only “Apparel and clothing accessories” but also “Textiles and textile fibres” have relatively low demand elasticities for Portugal, both compared with other Portuguese exporting sec- tors and with the same sectors in other euro area countries. These results suggest that the Portuguese specialisation in these two so-called “traditional” sectors was positive insofar as it contributed to reduce the exposure of total exports to changes in relative prices. How- ever, this specialisation probably also implied more adverse movements in relative prices, as these sectors are among those most affected by the entrance of low price producers from developing countries in international trade. 9

Sónia Cabral** José Ramos Maria** 1. INTRODUCTION Over the last four decades, trade openness has increased and international trade patterns have evolved significantly. Several papers have studied changes in specialization patterns. 1 From an indi- vidual country’s perspective it is interesting to identify the modifications in the trade pattern because they may provide insights on the underlying structural changes in the economy, namely in its structure of production. In addition, the magnitude and the pace of such changes is an indirect indicator of the flexibility of the economy in allocating resources between sectors. Therefore, these elements are rele- vant to understand the growth performance of the economy. This type of analysis can be enhanced by taking a set of countries as a benchmark, thereby investigating their relative behaviours. In this article, we are particularly interested in understanding how does the relative sectoral specialization of Portu- guese exports compare with that of the other initial EU Cohesion Fund beneficiaries (Spain, Greece and Ireland). 2 The article adopts a fact-finding approach, making extensive use of the standard Balassa (1965) index to assess the technological content of these countries’ manufacturing exports.

2. Meta-analysis of OLS estimates I have thus far simply considered the position of the UK in a cross-national ranking. I now attempt to identify specific countries, or groups of countries, that are substantially different from the UK. Table 4 presents OLS estimates from each of the three studies, with grey shading highlighting significant differences from the UK at conventional thresholds. The final column is a meta-analysis of the three studies, where each study has been given equal weight (Table 4 is ordered by this variable). 49 These meta-analytic results have the advantage of combining all available evidence into an ‘overall’ estimate, with the standard error greatly reduced. However, the disadvantage is that not all countries took part in each of the three studies, meaning that comparability across countries may be compromised. 50 Likewise, there are also limitations regarding comparability across the three data sets, as illustrated by the fact that, for some countries, they produce rather different estimates of intergenerational mobility. 51 Nevertheless, I will focus upon these meta-results, as it means the UK can be compared with the greatest number of countries while minimising the chances of a type II error. 52 Evidence of a genuine difference will be

This paper starts by assessing the degree of trade openness in the four countries consid- ered and particularly in the Portuguese case. It is typically acknowledged that Portugal became a more open economy since the sixties but it is rarely added that this trend was not stronger than in Spain or Greece, namely when the degree of openness is measured at constant prices. Comparing with Ireland, where the degree of openness has increased almost exponentially, it becomes clear that the resemblances are very limited, even in the sixties. Moreover, empirical work on the evolution of international trade patterns typically focus on exports and somewhat disregards the import side. Although relative export structures are sometimes sufficient to reveal comparative advantages, imports hold specific information on patterns of consumption that should not be overlooked. In fact, the availability and the consumption of a higher number of varieties of each good leads to a higher diversification of imports. In addition, global information flows and increased cultural interchange tend to approximate consumption patterns in different countries, leading to similar relative import structures. Furthermore, vertical special- ization activities, i.e. the import of intermediate goods to be used in the production of other goods that are latter exported, have become increasingly important, explaining why certain products are imported so intensively (see Hummels et al. (2001)).

This paper starts by assessing the degree of trade openness in the four countries consid- ered and particularly in the Portuguese case. It is typically acknowledged that Portugal became a more open economy since the sixties but it is rarely added that this trend was not stronger than in Spain or Greece, namely when the degree of openness is measured at constant prices. Comparing with Ireland, where the degree of openness has increased almost exponentially, it becomes clear that the resemblances are very limited, even in the sixties. Moreover, empirical work on the evolution of international trade patterns typically focus on exports and somewhat disregards the import side. Although relative export structures are sometimes sufficient to reveal comparative advantages, imports hold specific information on patterns of consumption that should not be overlooked. In fact, the availability and the consumption of a higher number of varieties of each good leads to a higher diversification of imports. In addition, global information flows and increased cultural interchange tend to approximate consumption patterns in different countries, leading to similar relative import structures. Furthermore, vertical special- ization activities, i.e. the import of intermediate goods to be used in the production of other goods that are latter exported, have become increasingly important, explaining why certain products are imported so intensively (see Hummels et al. (2001)).

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION For city policymakers and business leaders to design policies that are most effective in fostering economic growth and prosperity, they must have a firm grasp of the nature of the city’s economy currently. Previous research has shown that Morgantown’s overall economic profile is strong in comparison to West Virginia as a whole, 2 but, to our knowledge, no research exists that compares Morgantown’s economy to other cities across the United States. In this report we provide such a comparison. In particular, we profile Morgantown’s economy in conjunction with five comparable cities nationwide. These results will provide policymakers and business leaders with a richer grasp of where the city’s economic environment stands when judged nationally.

Discussion NSW has consistently had the highest rates of newly diagnosed HIV in Australia since the beginning of the HIV epidemic in the early 1980s. The rate of newly diagnosed HIV has stabilised in the last decade in NSW, which was not observed in other Australian jurisdictions until more recent years. Notification rates nationally have converged. 19 The apparent decline in NSW in 2008 was likely due in part to improved identification of people who had previously tested positive for HIV infection. The NSW epidemic has occurred predominately in men who have sex with men, although there has been a modest increase in the number of cases reporting heterosexual acquisition since the mid 1990s. Acquisition through injecting drug use has been minimal in the latter half of the epidemic with the other risk exposures, such as blood products, rarely occurring since early in the epidemic.

on this topic regarding the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The main aims of this study are to examine the effect of the financial crisis on health care spending in four CEE countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) in comparison with the OECD countries. In this paper we also revised the literature for economic crisis related impact on health and health care system in these countries. OECD data released in 2012 were used to examine the differences in growth rates before and after the financial crisis. We examined the ratio of the average yearly growth rates of health expenditure expressed in USD (PPP) between 2008-2010 and 2000-2008. The classification of the OECD countries regarding “development” and “relative growth” resulted in four clusters. A large diversity of “relative growth” was observed across the countries in austerity conditions, however the changes significantly correlate with the average drop of GDP from 2008 to 2010. To conclude, it is difficult to capture visible evidence regarding the impact of the recession on the health and health care systems in the CEE countries due to the absence of the necessary data. For the same reason, governments in this region might have a limited capability to minimize the possible negative effects of the recession on health and health care systems.

III. How Relevant Are Implementation Deficits? As mentioned in the Introduction, international financial institutions tend to blame developing countries for an insufficient reform-mindedness and implementation deficits, resulting in their fairly disappointing growth performance. For instance, the World Bank (1997) reported that only about one quarter of African countries which received structural adjustment loans during the period 1980–1996 fulfilled to a sufficient extent the policy conditions attached to these loans. As concerns IMF programmes, Bird (2001: 1855–6) concluded: "The most recent evidence suggests that more than two-thirds of programs are poorly implemented and break down." The disappointing growth performance of countries in the MENA region is attributed to two policy failures in the report by the Study Group on Middle East Trade Options of the Council on Foreign Relations: "One important explanation is the failure to develop links with the global economy through foreign investment and trade in services and goods other than oil. A second reason is that most of the governments in the Middle East and North Africa have made scant headway in reducing the interventionist role of the state in the economy" (Hoekman and Messerlin 2002:

in the top 15 percent. a score of 2 indicates that the practice is in the bottom half, but not the bottom 15 percent. Those with a 1 are in the bottom 15 percent. Practices score consistently high in the doctor communication category, so that is scored somewhat differently. Practices that score 95 points or higher earn the highest Rating of 4; practices scoring between 90 and 95 points get a 3; practices between 80 and 90 points get a 2; and practices that score below 80 points get a 1. Some practices are missing scores for measures because we only publish ratings for performance measures if we have enough data to provide statistically reliable results. Where can I find more details? go to MHQP’s website at MHQP.org, where you can find the data and technical details about these ratings on the “Quality Reports” tab. MHQP also collects and publicly reports other information, such as clinical-outcomes data, which can also be found at MHQP.org.

Respondents who said Always 75 percent What to do. Because doctors are busy, visits can feel rushed. To make the most of your time, jot down questions and concerns in advance, listing the most important ones first. Ask whether other providers on staff can help you with the less pressing ques- tions. If you want to raise a new health con- cern during your visit, mention that when you make the appointment so that more time can be scheduled for you. According to re- search, when visits aren’t rushed, doctors are less likely to write unnecessary prescriptions and more likely to spend time talking about preventive care and self-help measures.

For decades, researchers have asked whether teacher compensation has kept pace with outside job opportunities, and whether compensation is sufficiently competitive to attract the quality of instructors desired. 4 The importance of sala- ries (relative to other job characteristics, such as working conditions, summers off, and job flexibility) to the recruitment of high-quality teachers has also been stud- ied in great detail. While the popular view is that teacher pay is relatively low and has not kept up with comparable professions over time, new claims suggest that teachers are actually well compensated when work hours, weeks of work, or ben- efits packages are taken into account. 5 Whatever the case, the many unique fea- tures of the teaching profession have almost certainly complicated efforts to com- pare its compensation to that of other professions.

❍ Sometimes ❍ always Respondents who said Always 54 percent What to do Make sure your doctor knows about the care you get from other health care providers, including other physicians as well as acupuncturists, chiropractors, herbalists, and other alternative health care practitioners. Explain why you saw them, what happened during the visit, and what treatments or drugs were pre- scribed. Make sure those providers com- municate with your primary care doctor, too. Ask for copies of letters or reports that the specialist plans to send to your primary care provider. Electronic health records can help doctors share information, but pa- tients need to be involved.

2.2.6 Unavailable denominator data When calculating incidence rates, the numerator and denominator data should have the same coverage. For example, if self-employed persons are included in the numerator then they should be included in the denominator. For this analysis, data on employees only would assist the comparability across countries. However it has not been possible to separately extract these data in some countries with self- employed workers included in some and only insured workers included in others. In Australia, specific denominators are calculated to match the scope of the various jurisdictions, using a sub-set of the labour force figures. This methodology takes into account part-time employment and multiple jobholders. This will increase Australia’s denominator data as multiple job holders are counted more than once, and will result in Australia having a lower incident rate than if a simple count of all employees were used.

policy perspective it is clear that the sectoral approach adopted in NI is entirely consistent with the general national approach and, indeed in many respects, it pre-dated it. However, due to the fact that the NI approach preceded the SSC’s the sectors examined did not follow the SSC framework, moreover, it could be argued that the process by which sectors were selected for examination was somewhat ad-hoc in nature and lacked any clear criteria. Under previous arrangements a Skills Task Force took a decision with respect to the sectors that constituted a priority skill area and whilst in most cases, such as with IT, Electronics, Mechanical Engineering and Construction, the sectors chosen for examination were beyond dispute in terms of their strategic importance to the economy as defined by their high-skill, high value added content, in other instances, such as the decision to examine the Hotel and Catering sector, the rationale behind the selection was less clear. Given that arrangements are currently underway to reconstitute the NI Skills Task Force under the aegis of the NI Skills Expert Group (NISEG), it would seem an opportune time to develop a clear criteria that will enable the body to make appropriate and informed decisions on those sectors that are considered a significant priority from a skills perspective in NI.

5 Source for FY2014 and FY2013 budgets: CTBA, Analysis of the FY2014 General Fund Budget (Chicago: October 2013). Source for FY2012 budget, COGFA, State of Illinois Budget Summary: Fiscal Year 2014 (Springfield, IL: August 1, 2013), 26. 6 Spending on items other than current spending, like repayment of debt service and pension liabilities, have not been included to isolate investments being made in providing current, core services. Moreover, some states, like Michigan, provide education funding through special state funds that are not part of their General Funds. In those instances, state-based education spending has been added to General Fund spending to produce an “apples-to-apples” comparison. The states with non-General Fund education expenditures are: Alabama, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Wyoming. Additionally, there were several states in which budgets detailed by service category were not available. In those instances, GF expenditures as reported by the National Association of State Budget Officers were used. The states are: North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington and the source is: